1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wire harness connected to an electronic control unit (refer it to as an ECU, hereinafter) that electronically controls a load and various kinds of other devices (refer them together as “electrical equipments”, hereinafter) mounted on a vehicle, and an ECU system that electrically connects the ECU to the various kinds of electrical equipments.
2. Background Art
Usually, an ECU for carrying out various kinds of controls of a vehicle has been known. As a device using the ECU, an ECU-mount box is proposed which is mounted on the vehicle under a state that an ECU case having the ECU incorporated is attached thereto. For instance, JP-A-2008-105577 proposes the ECU-mount box. In the ECU-mount box, under a state that the weight of a box main body having an ECU case and its stand-by connector accommodated therein is reduced and miniaturized, a strength necessary for the box main body with the stand-by connector incorporated can be ensured and the reliability of an attachment is improved (for instance, see JP-A-2008-105577).
A wire harness is used to electrically connect a battery to the ECU or the ECU to the electrical equipments. However, the treatments of the ECU and the wire harness by a worker for an assembly work have been hitherto completely different from each other.
Namely, for instance, even when the wire harness is allowed to contact a surface on which a wiring is arranged during an arrangement thereof, the quality of the wire harness is hardly affected thereby. Accordingly, the wire harness is liable to be treated disorderly by the worker for the assembly work. On the other hand, when the ECU is handled disorderly during a work, since there is a fear that the quality as the ECU may be greatly adversely affected, for instance, a casing for holding the ECU is broken or wirings of a circuit body disposed in the casing of the ECU are disconnected, the ECU needs to be handled carefully by the worker for the assembly work. Such a difference in treatment results from a fact that the wire harness and the ECU are formed as separate members and the ECU is held by the casing (for instance, made of plastic) whose resistance to an impact may not be sufficient.
In an assembly line in which the ECU and the wire harness are formed as the separate members and the ECU is connected to the wire harness in a part of works of production processes, when the ECU and the wire harness are connected and arranged together, below described problems arise due to a preconception that the ECU and the wire harness are handled as the separate members. Namely,
(1) As described above, the worker for the assembly work needs to be conscious of the treatments of the ECU and the wire harness and carry out different treatments.
(2) By considering a connection of the ECU and the wire harness by a manual operation of the worker for the assembly work, for instance, as shown in FIG. 11, a connector 201 needs to be formed in a casing 200A of the ECU 200 side to fit a connector 101 attached to one end of the wire harness 100 thereto. However, the connector 201 of the ECU 200 side is required to have such a size as to improve workability when the ECU 200 is connected to the wire harness 100. As a result, it is difficult to miniaturize the casing 200A of the ECU 200. Further, in order to allow the ECU 200 to have a durability to an impact, the casing 200A of the ECU 200 needs to be enlarged to some degree, which prevents the casing of the ECU from being miniaturized.
(3) When the ECU is enlarged, the arrangement of wirings needs to be designed by considering where the ECU is to be suitably arranged. Accordingly a degree of freedom in designing the arrangement of wirings is lowered.